Jailed homeowner reconsiders mowing lawn

Homeowner reconsiders mowing lawn after jail stintBattle over widow's overgrown lawn has lasted three years

PEGGY O'HARE, Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

Published
5:30 am CDT, Wednesday, June 6, 2007

Linda A. Ballew waits in civic court to return to the county jail where she was to be released after her hearing in Judge Mark Davidson's 111th District Court. Ballew had been found in contempt of court for not cutting her grass and trimming her trees as the judge had ordered her to do. less

Linda A. Ballew waits in civic court to return to the county jail where she was to be released after her hearing in Judge Mark Davidson's 111th District Court. Ballew had been found in contempt of court for not ... more

Photo: Gary Fountain, For The Chronicle

Photo: Gary Fountain, For The Chronicle

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Linda A. Ballew waits in civic court to return to the county jail where she was to be released after her hearing in Judge Mark Davidson's 111th District Court. Ballew had been found in contempt of court for not cutting her grass and trimming her trees as the judge had ordered her to do. less

Linda A. Ballew waits in civic court to return to the county jail where she was to be released after her hearing in Judge Mark Davidson's 111th District Court. Ballew had been found in contempt of court for not ... more

Photo: Gary Fountain, For The Chronicle

Jailed homeowner reconsiders mowing lawn

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Linda A. Ballew spent four nights in the Harris County Jail for ignoring court orders related to a long-running dispute about her overgrown lawn before she finally agreed to cut the grass Tuesday.

Her next-door neighbor David Carroll — who also is president of the homeowners association board — is waiting to see whether she makes good on her promise.

Neighborhood spats are common, but there was nothing typical about this three-year battle, which has reached almost absurd proportions in the Kirkwood South subdivision.

The 50-year-old widow has lived for 14 years in her home in the 10400 block of Glenkirk. But her overgrown yard and the varmints that call it home drew the ire of the Kirkmont Association's board of directors.

Ballew, who has an 18-year-old son, cut her front lawn when the group took the dispute to court to force her to comply with the neighborhood's deed restrictions. But her backyard, surrounded by a fence, has remained largely unchanged.

Carroll, who likens Ballew's backyard to a "jungle" of grass ranging from 4 feet to 9 feet tall, says the excessive growth has caused him considerable problems.

"We've had nutria rats — the ones that look like beavers — caught in the trap in my backyard," Carroll said. "I have had run-ins with large snakes. My dog has been sprayed by a skunk. ... My children are not allowed to walk the property unless I go out there first.

"Anytime you try to entertain with friends, you have to explain why there is a jungle next door creeping through the fence. ... It's just the craziest thing."

Ballew wouldn't comment to the Houston Chronicle on Tuesday but told state District Judge Mark Davidson she recently underwent major surgery and had been hospitalized.

Davidson, who had ordered Ballew's arrest after she failed to appear at a previous hearing, expressed sympathy and agreed to work with her. The judge also suggested that a Scout troop might be willing to do the yard work for her as a good deed.

"I'm sorry it had to come to this in order to get y'all to talk to each other," Davidson told both sides in court Tuesday. "I don't want to have to issue any more warrants, any more writs, any more orders in this case."

The Kirkmont Association first sued Ballew and won a permanent injunction against her in 2004, requiring her to mow her entire lawn twice a month and trim her trees and shrubs once a year. Ballew failed to appear in court at that time to respond to the lawsuit, which resulted in a default judgment.

But little has changed since then, Carroll said. Only the front yard has been mowed.

During a follow-up hearing in April 2006, Ballew was found to be in contempt of court for failing to comply with the injunction. She was sentenced to three days in jail, but that sentence was suspended for four months to give her time to do the required yard work, homeowners association attorney Michael Treece said.

She was ordered to return to Davidson's court for a compliance hearing in August but failed to appear.

Davidson issued an order for Ballew's arrest last fall. She was taken into custody Friday. The judge told Ballew he sought her arrest "very reluctantly."

The judge even offered to cut Ballew's lawn himself Tuesday, saying he needed the exercise, before deciding that he could not do so because such a move could possibly make him a witness in the case.

Ballew ultimately agreed to clean up her backyard within 30 days but hinted it might take longer. Davidson ordered her released, and she walked out of jail shortly after 3 p.m.